Common Name: PINK FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb; rarely dioecious (Silene), taprooted or rhizome generally slender. Leaf: simple, generally opposite (subwhorled), entire, pairs at nodes often +- connected at bases; stipules generally 0; petiole generally 0. Inflorescence: generally cyme, generally open; flowers 1--many; involucre generally 0 (present in most Dianthus, Petrorhagia). Flower: generally bisexual, radial; hypanthium often present but obscure; sepals (4)5, +- free or fused into a tube, margins generally scarious, more so on inner 2 or not, tube generally not scarious, awns generally 0; petals (4)5 or 0, generally tapered to base (or with claw long, limb expanded), entire to 2--several-lobed, limb generally without scale-like appendages adaxially, generally without ear-like lobes at base; stamens generally 10, generally fertile, generally free, generally from ovary base; nectaries 0 or 5; ovary superior, generally 1-chambered, placentas basal or free-central, styles 2--5 with 0 branches or 1 with 2--3 branches. Fruit: capsule or utricle (rarely +- dehiscent), generally sessile. Seed: appendage generally 0 (present in Moehringia).
Genera In Family: +- 100 genera, 3000 species: widespread, especially arctic, alpine, temperate northern hemisphere; some cultivated (Agrostemma, Arenaria, Atocion, Cerastium, Dianthus, Gypsophila, Lychnis, Sagina, Saponaria, Silene). Note: Apetalous Caryophyllaceae can also be keyed in Rabeler & Hartman 2005 FNANM 5:5--8. Taxa of Minuartia in TJM2 treated here in Cherleria and Sabulina; Pseudostellaria in Hartmaniella and Schizotechium; Vaccaria in Gypsophila; Velezia in Dianthus.
eFlora Treatment Author: Ronald L. Hartman (deceased) & Richard K. Rabeler, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin & Thomas J. Rosatti.

Common Name: NAILWORT
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, erect or +- prostrate, taprooted. Leaf: stipules 1--6 mm, lanceolate to ovate, scarious, +- entire, white; blade elliptic to oblanceolate; vein +- 1. Inflorescence: axillary, dense; flowers 1--12; pedicels 0--2 mm. Flower: hypanthium cup-shaped; calyx abruptly expanded above or not; sepals 5, free, 0.7--4.4 mm (except awn), lanceolate to ovate, +- hairy, margin narrow, white, scarious, erect or recurved adaxially at tip (awn then appearing at tip); awn abaxial, subterminal, 0.5--1.5 mm, thread-like to +- stout, straight to wavy; petals 0; fertile stamens 5, staminodes 0 or 5, 0.5--1 mm, thread-like, on hypanthium rim; styles 2 or 2-branched in upper 1/2, 0.2--0.5 mm. Fruit: utricle, ovoid to spheric. Seed: 1, brown.
Etymology: (Greek: inflammation of finger, especially under nail [whitlow], ailment plant was believed to cure)
Reference: Hartman et al. 2005 FNANM 5:30--43